Ion species such as H+, He2+, He+ and O+ comprise the majority of total mass density of plasma in the solar system and can trigger severe magnetic storms if they collide into the Earth's atmosphere. This phenomenon produces powerful eruptions, commonly referred to as Coronal Mass Ejections (CME), that may result in power outages and disable communication satellites. High-flying satellites can carry equipments to detect and analyze the ion species before these species intersect the satellites' orbits, so that sensitive electronic components contained in the satellites can be shut down in a timely fashion to prevent damages from CME.
A detection system for determining the ion species can be based on Time-of-Flight (TOF) measurements which measure the arrival time of the ions at a detector after the ions pass through a known electrostatic acceleration field. An accurate determination of the ion flux and the ion species requires a precise determination of the total charge incident on the detector and the time-of-flight of the ions between the electrodes. The accuracy of these detectors is as good as their detection sensitivity and detection speed, which depends on detector design, in particular the uniformity of the detector, as well as the design of the detection electronics which requires efficient signal sensing and shaping.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a fast, compact, and efficient circuit that can provide precise timing signals from an anode charge detector while also accurately measuring the total received charge.